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I had a white 81 too and needed clearance for a bigger motor, the usual long L88 version appeared to bulky to me, so i used the smaller, shorter (and lower) version and had it grafted into the original 81 hood.
So the front portion was stock and flowed seemlessly into the L88 scoop - the 80 / 82 hood was a perfect starting point for this.
It worked out well lookwise and as planned, but still - i did regret to have "ruined" the stock 81 hood from the moment i saw it mounted.
I felt like "now it looks like every other", although it was a version i had not seen before.
That elegant slim line especially from the side view was not the same anymore.
GM did well in my opinion with the 80 / 82 alteration and i find any scoop just takes away from it`s good design, unless the car is a or chrome conversion or fully customised otherwise.
It is probably a better wind tunnel design too vs the other years.
Big mistake to me and i would never repeat, i would rather go with a modern engine with low intake to avaid the need of a scoop if staying stock otherwise.
The stinger is a killer hood, but to me it does not improve the well balanced 80/82 look, i like it more on a pre`80 car and the best on a chromy.
The modded 80hood shown above is nice too, if wanting the more aggressive look.
But if it is about fresh air only : the 82 hood looks same from outside, but is internally set up to grab some fresh air to the intake, more effective than the 80/81.
I remember that as i bought a 82 hood for another car later.
LT 1 and 80/82 became my all time favorites, i saw a long version of the LT 1 somewhere on a later year car, but that one was custom otherwise too.
Just my personal opinion, no offence, we`re all different, also i think i have seen so many L88`s over the years that i feel a 80`s hood is a rarity versus that one.
for 78 to 82 i personally like the twin turbo or the stinger hood. another option i think looks nice is this hood saw one locally on an all white 80 and really diged it. 77 and down l88 any day. heres an l88 high rise on my 73
not sure what this hood is called but im looking for that or stinger in the future for the 78
for 78 to 82 i personally like the twin turbo or the stinger hood. another option i think looks nice is this hood saw one locally on an all white 80 and really diged it. 77 and down l88 any day. heres an l88 high rise on my 73
not sure what this hood is called but im looking for that or stinger in the future for the 78
Looks like this ACI hood, 2nd one from the top on the left.
This hood and variations are normally called "daytona" then tack on greenwood. Ecklers, or aci, etc depending on who is selling it,
I ran ecklers version on my 81 wide body in 89 because everyone at the time ran twin turbo hoods with the irony being no one had turbos,
I was told a story by a guy who was hanging around greenwood who is the originator of this hood that what greenwood did was raise a 80 style hoods scoop they took 2x4s and made those side pods, took his mold from that, simple but stunning,
the hood this cat had came from a wrecked greenwood racer and had no openings or vents on the side pods,
I noticed each place that sells a version changes the side vents, i have seen one i think vanacors sold that looked like 1978 z28 fender vents laying where the pods are,
My favorite side vents are ecklers version...I like this hood a lot as its custom and adds clearance yet isnt obnoxious or tacky,
I like the L88 hood not only for looks, but because they allow the use of a taller induction on the engine and a functional cold air intake.
Mike
I guess the l88 is about my favorite scoop, and so many feel that way that they have popped up on just about everything,
But not all l88 scoops or in this case c3 hoods have the factory l88 style cold air box, and i would believe any scoop could be made as a cold air induction,
I really like how the gm l88 sealed the air cleaner against the hood with the filter on the hood side, i planned to do my take on that, there is a thread on here talking about how much does that cool air really help,
I have to wonder as a lot of the conversions to late model engines have that tuner style air filter right in the flow of hot air from the back of the radiator and i guess those cars run okay,
I think the Corvette designers missed the boat by not continuing the stinger hood scoop into the C3 cars. The L88 and hi-rise hoods don't look 'appropriate' for the smooth, classy 80-82 C3 cars, unless the car has been modded with a performance look. And the BB hood of the early C3 cars is just 'wrong'.
Taste is so personal- I'm the exact opposite here. I think the early C3 big block/LT-1 hood is the best looking of the series. A slight factory "bulge" with a tiny bit of trim, but not overdone.
I really dislike the stinger hoods on C3s. Talk about "wrong," it just looks way out of place on a different era car than they were designed for.
This stuff is so personal. That's why I never ask for opinions on these decisions.
I should clarify though, regarding the OPs question, when I was driving 80-82 cars I was looking for a hood change too and couldn't do it. The lines on those cars are distinctive and flow through the stock hood. I love L88 hoods but I honestly think the stock hoods look best on the series. I actually did what someone posted earlier and went with paint design for a personal look.
Thanks for all the input guys, glad we have made it up to 31 posts for this thread. I realize this decision is a subjective and personal one, just nice to see all the pictures and input from people who have owned c3's for a while.
I will also say that I have and still am contemplating the daytona hood as well since the bulge is close if not the same to the stock bulge. I just wish I could find some photos of a stock body 81 with a daytona hood. All of my searches on google are custom body cars or kits.
I've got a Daytona hood made for a 79 that I'll be putting on my 75 some day. I haven't worked out the latch details yet, might even just use magnets to keep it closed.
Do you need the clearance? The stock hood looks best on a white '80-82. My other votes would be for a high-rise stock hood (post #4), or a stinger hood.
there is a thread on here talking about how much does that cool air really help,
I have to wonder as a lot of the conversions to late model engines have that tuner style air filter right in the flow of hot air from the back of the radiator and i guess those cars run okay,
For every 10 degrees of temperature drop, there is approximately a 1% gain in power. It's actually a little higher than 1% but in a small decimal difference. This is the same correction used on dynos and at the drag strip and is a standard correction, although the relative humidity or vapor pressure and barometric pressure are used also in those corrections. In this instance we are only interested in temperature.
So for easy math let's say you are making 500 HP. If the under hood temps are 150 degrees, which would not be uncommon and could run higher, and the outside temp is 70 degrees, there would be an 80 degree difference in a sealed cold air inlet temp from an underhood air inlet temp.
80 degrees would mean a 8% increase in HP. You just gained 40 horsepower. Of course the hood will not be completely insulated from being warmed by the under hood temps and by the sun, but there will still be a very significant difference between underhood and cold air inlet temps.
The other plus to a cold air intake is octane requirements drop as inlet air temp go down. On an engine like mine with 11.8 to 1 compression and a high dynamic compression, this is very important.
With my DD (Honda Type R), every year in summer, on the cooler days when the weather turns bad and degrees drop, i notice everytime how much the engine likes the cold air.
Not that i would try out if makes more top end power or goes faster or anything, it`s just very noticeable at normal real world driving, although i have no thoughts about it.
For some reason in this forum my photobucket pictures still show up, every other forum not.
So the thread in that link has some pictures of the modified 81 stock hood i mentioned above.
like always that`s in the eye of the beholder, i like my shaker and think it flows, although it meant to change a 80/82 hood again. But as the car is not a stocker anyways it is a different story.
I wanted the low hood line, that one has a MAF intake directly fed by the functional shaker.
The ridge in center of the hood continues on the shaker scoop, due to Photo$ucket i don`t have newer pictures available to post of the now painted car.
09-19-2017, 02:13 PM
